Can Trudeau Really Bring an Amazon HQ2 to Canada?

The list of cities eligible for a second headquarters for e-commerce giant Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has been whittled down to 20, with Toronto the only Canadian city which has breached the list of North American options for Amazon to consider. The hunt to host a second home for the tech giant is one which has resulted in a significant amount of posturing between cities, with offers of billions of dollars' worth of amenities or incentives factored into the discussion from every jurisdiction.

With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau traversing Silicon Valley this past week and meeting with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, among others, hopes that Trudeau's chat with Bezos will result in a sufficient amount of sway in terms of which city Bezos and his management team choose has left some with optimism surrounding the process. Amazon currently employs thousands of Canadians, and the potential for 50,000 more jobs in the Toronto area is indeed an endeavour worth pursing for the Canadian leader.

That being said, a number of leaders in the private sector have noted that having a Canadian HQ2 for Amazon may actually result in the opposite effect for Canada long-term, with much of the country's top tech talent recruited to higher-paying Amazon, resulting in a smaller talent pool for other Canadian tech startups.